


Not So Straight Golden Boy

by omg-kent-mashkov (Sotheylived)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Dancing, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Ice Skating, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-28 17:32:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11422782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sotheylived/pseuds/omg-kent-mashkov
Summary: Corbin Harvey has always had a small manageable crush on Kent Parson. Unfortunately for him, that crush remains neither small nor manageable once he stumbles upon Kent naked in the locker room.





	1. Chapter One

Harvey wanted to go home. He’d been at the rink since 6 am and he was literally five minutes away from murdering someone. He should’ve told Audrey no when she asked him to take over her shift. Of course he’d said yes because he’s a dumbass and she was having a kid, but still.

He was doing the final walkthrough before locking up when he noticed the lights on in the locker room. Harvey sighed and walked in, one of these days the cleaning crew would remember to turn out the lights. Harvey rounded the corner into the room and immediately froze.

“Naked Kent Parson!” he said, hands flying up to cover his eyes.

“You can just call me Kent.”

“Oh my god,” he said. “Oh my god Kent - Mr. P - Kent Parson,” he stumbled over his words. “I am so sorry, I was just coming in to shut off the lights. I had no idea someone was still in here.”

“It’s fine man,” Kent said, and he sounded weird - a little sad maybe.

Not that Harvey would really know what he normally sounded like in person since he was fairly certain Kent had never said more than _hey_ to him as they passed in the hallways before - but still. Harvey wanted to look at him, see if he really was sad but the three second long glance he’d gotten of a toned, tanned, wet bare chest a moment ago had him squeezing his eyes shut behind his hand.  

“You don’t have to keep covering your eyes you know.”

“But you’re naked!” Harvey said before he could stop himself. _God_ he was making a fool of himself.

Kent huffed out a sound that was probably supposed to be related to a laugh. “Bro, I’ve got a towel on.”

Harvey slowly lowered his hand and yup that was definitely a towel draped low across Kent Parson’s hips. He was sitting down in front of his locker, legs spread looking for all the world like he belonged on the cover of a magazine instead of in a smelly gym locker room hours after the game ended. Harvey had never really been _into_ hockey players per say.  He didn’t have a crush on any of the Aces - seriously seeing the mess they always left for the cleaning crew nipped it right in the butt. But Kent Parson - well even Harvey could appreciate a body like that.

“Okay, well now that I’ve made a fool of myself,” Harvey said, backing towards the door. “Can you just turn the light out when you’re done?”

Kent Parson nodded and stood, grabbing his clothes from his locker. And Harvey figured he was being dismissed. Just before he made it out of the locker room he turned back towards Kent.

“Hey,” he said, tapping a hand against the locker room door frame. “Good game tonight, I really thought the Falconers had you there for a second.”

Parson’s shoulders stiffened and Harvey wanted to apologize but he wasn’t sure what he’d said wrong. Before he could say anything Kent mumbled thanks and began getting dressed, movements jerky and mechanical.

_/\\_

Harvey’s best friend, Tara, was under the impression that being a rink manager at the arena the Aces used was a glamorous position where he could talk to the Aces everyday. The reality of it was that he’d never so much as had a real non-work related conversation with any of the Aces until he walked in on Kent in the locker room. The following day when he’d been back at the arena for his own shift he’d expected things to go back to normal - him occasionally passing Kent Parson in the hallway receiving a nod or, if Kent was in a chatty mood, a _hey_ in greeting.

So he was more than a little shocked when, instead of passing one another in the hallway like usual, Kent approached him fifteen minutes before Aces practice was set to start.  

“Hey man,” Kent said, “Sorry I didn’t catch your name last night, I was pretty messed up after the game.” The way he smiled when he said it made Harvey think he was supposed to smile back, maybe make a joke, but the way Kent’s eyes didn’t catch the smile made him hesitate.

“Corbin Harvey, I go by Harvey,” he said, extending a hand. “Daytime Pepsi Arena manager.”

“So official,” Kent said, shaking his hand. “I’m Kent, but I’m fairly certain you already knew that.” Kent winked, but it seemed mechanical, more of an ‘I should wink here’ rather than an ‘I want to wink here’.  “So Harvey, if you’re the daytime manager, what were you doing here last night?”

Harvey pulled his hand back from Kent’s grip before the other man could feel the clamminess of his palm. “I was covering Audrey’s shift, since she was having a baby.”

Kent quirked his head at Harvey. “Brunette, about this tall,” he said, with his hand outstretched a couple inches shorter than Kent. “Black hipster glasses?”

“Yeah,” Harvey said, unsure where Kent was going with this. He shifted out of the way as a gaggle of Aces came clomping down the hallway, several of whom thumped Kent on the back as they past.

“She didn’t look pregnant.”

“Oh,” Harvey said, “Her partner went into labor right before Audrey’s shift last night so she obviously left to be with her - which left me with a 16 hour shift.”

“Her partner?” Kent repeated as though he’d never heard the word before. And _god_ Harvey hoped Kent Parson wasn’t going to be a dick about this because that would definitely ruin the fantasy he had going in his head after seeing him wet and half naked last night.

“Yup,” Harvey said firmly, daring Kent to be a dick.

“Cool. Tell her congrats from me,” Kent said.

The tightness leached from Harvey’s shoulders as he smiled. “Yeah, I’ll let her know Kent Parson sends his congratulations when she comes back to work.”

“You can call me Kent you know.” Kent smirked and patted Harvey on the shoulder. “Anyway I better get to practice, see you around.”

Over the following two weeks he saw Kent Parson a total of six times, and each time Kent at least smiled at him, and sometimes struck up a conversation. It was weird, but in a good way that Harvey was definitely not going to question - especially when it gave him something to look forward to while he was taking long shifts during home games to cover for Audrey.  

When Harvey was walking by the locker room one afternoon he heard one of the showers running. Harvey walked into the locker room and towards the area with the showers. He rounded the corner into the shower area and was confronted with Kent Parson’s perky, bare naked ass.

Harvey yelped and turned around swiftly. “Oh my god - I’m so sorry,” he said, feeling a strong sense of deja vu.

The shower squeaked off and a moment later Kent was standing before him, towel wrapped around his waist. “We have to stop meeting like this,” he said with a bright carefree smile.

“I’m sorry,” Harvey repeated, using all his willpower to keep his eyes from roaming down Kent’s bare chest. “I thought someone left the shower on - you’d think by now I’d have learned to announce myself before just waltzing into the locker room.”

“It’s cool,” Kent said, snagging another towel from the rack and messing his hair with it. “I’m used to a being naked around a bunch of guys.”

Out of context the statement would definitely be odd, but Kent was obviously used to sharing the locker room with plenty of other people. Kent started walking from the shower area back towards his locker with Harvey trailing behind him.

“Well that’s good at least,” Harvey said, as Kent began rifling through his locker. “I’m pretty sure I’d be nowhere near as chill about it.”

“Spend a season in a hockey locker room and you get used to pretty much anything.” Kent said, slipping his boxers on underneath his towel, before dropping it to the floor. Harvey swallowed hard. “You ever play hockey?”

Harvey shook his head, snapping his eyes back up to meet Kent’s. “Nah,” he said, clearing his throat, “I can’t even skate.”

“What?” Kent froze, jeans only halfway up his thighs. “You’re joking right?”

Harvey smiled sheepishly and shook his head.

“OH MY GOD,” Kent said, yanking his pants on the rest of the way. “Grab a pair of skates from the rental booth and get your ass on the ice, I’m teaching you right now.”

Harvey rubbed his scruffy chin. “Well there’s a youth figure skating class that starts soon,” he said, which wasn’t true in the strictest sense of the word since there was a solid hour left before the kids would start showing up, but Kent didn’t need to know that.

“Ugh,” Kent sighed melodramatically, “Alright Harvard you nerd.” He pulled on a shirt and reached into his bag to pull out a phone that was even older than Harvey’s. “Here give me your number.”

“Did you just call me Harvard?” Harvey asked, reaching for Kent Parson’s phone automatically.

“Yeah,” Kent smiled and bumped his shoulder, “If you’re going to learn how to skate you’re going to need a hockey nickname.”

Harvey bit down on the smile trying to break free as he plugged his phone number into Kent’s flip phone. Harvey handed him his phone back and tried not to die of embarrassment just thinking about a Stanley Cup champion watching him try to skate.

Harvey’s phone began buzzing in his pocket. Before he could move to pull it out Kent spoke.

“There, now you’ll have my number too,” he said with a smile so big Harvey wondered how he could’ve ever thought that the smirk he offered the media was the real thing. “See you around Harvard.”

Harvey forgot to program Kent’s number into his phone, and that evening he got a text from an unknown number that said _Spice world channel 42._

6:17pm _: What? Is this Kent Parson_

6:17pm: _Um dude you can just call me Kent  
_ 6:17pm: _and yess obv_

6:19pm: _Oh, did you mean to send me that text?_

6:19pm: _yeah b/c spice worls is on channel 42 rn and you’re missing out  
_ 6:20pm: _world*_

Harvey smiled down at his phone and flicked on the T.V. He was thankful Tara wasn’t home yet because there was no doubt in his mind that she’d be teasing him ruthlessly.  

6:23pm: _Okay I turned it on. I’ve actually never seen this._

6:23pm: _Oh my goddddd  
_ 6:23pm: _First he says he doesn’t know how to skate  
_ 6:23pm: _then hes never seen spice world_  
6:24pm: _whats next you’ve never_

The next text didn’t appear for three and a half minutes - not that Harvey was keeping track, but still that seemed like an inordinately long time for the short message that followed.

6:27pm: _had cotton candy_

6:28pm: _Now that is something I have done  
_ 6:28pm:    _:)_

He watched the rest of the movie with Kent - well not really with him, but close enough since they texted throughout the entire thing. Tara didn’t come home until the credits had long since rolled and he was still smiling like a dumbass at his phone.

“What’s got you so happy,” Tara said, plopping down onto the couch beside him.

“Nothing,” Harvey said, glancing at the goodnight text Kent had sent after the movie ended.

“That smile’s not nothing.” Tara leaned into Harvey and stole his phone, ignoring Harvey’s halfhearted attempts at getting it back. “Is this the real Kent Parson?” Tara asked, holding up his phone as evidence.

“Yes,” Harvey said, trying to reach the phone to pull it out of her hands unsuccessfully.

Tara put her hand on his head to keep him at a distance and scrolled through the texts with her other. “Oh my god,” she said, “You used emojis.”

“No I didn’t,” Harvey said even though the evidence was in her hands. He lunged towards his roommate who - for being so small - was way too skillful at wrestling out of his grip.

“Yes you did,” she laughed and stood before throwing him his phone back. She put a pale hand to her chest and sighed. “My little Corbin, growing up.”

Harvey threw a pillow at her.

_/\\_

He and Kent texted randomly following their shared movie night and every time his phone buzzed he had a dopey grin on his face that he couldn’t seem to help. They still talked when they saw each other in the hallways, but Harvey didn’t bring up the texting and neither did Kent. It wasn’t as though it was a secret, but it wasn’t _not_ a secret either.

Almost two weeks after they started texting they still hadn’t gone ice skating yet due to a string of away games and excuses from Harvey when the Aces were home. Harvey was sitting in his office one afternoon when one of the custodians came in.

“One of the Aces is looking for you.”

Harvey stood, tamping down a stupid smile. “Okay, do you know where he is?”

“Conference room three.”

Harvey thanked him and bounded out of his office down the hall towards the conference rooms. Why Kent would want to meet him there he had no idea. When Harvey opened the door to the room he froze for a second, double checking that he hadn’t stepped into the wrong room accidentally.

Harvey felt a little dumb when he realized he was in the right room - just because he and Kent texted now didn’t mean that there weren’t still work related things some of the other Aces might want to talk to him about.

He smiled and stepped into the room, greeting the dark haired Ace waiting with his back to him.

“Hey, are you Harvard?”

Harvey rubbed a hand across his jaw before stepping forward. “I’m Harvey,” he said, offering a hand.

“Jeff Troy,” the guy said, shaking his hand.

“What can I do for you?” Harvey asked, using his customer service voice.

“So I may have stolen Kent’s phone after he was being a jerk and I may have seen how much he texts you,” Jeff said. “So I sort of wanted to meet you because I’m a nosy asshole and Kent’s my best friend.”

Harvey was confused, what was he supposed to say here? _Don’t worry I’m not trying to take your best friend away, I just kind of really want to kiss him._ Um no thanks.

“It’s good to meet you,” he said instead.

“I should’ve known you’d be a fucking giant. How tall are you? 6’3” 6’4”?”

“Uhh,” Harvey said, nearly getting whiplash from trying to follow Jeff’s train of thought. “Like 6’6” I think?”

“Wow so like substantially taller than Parser, that’s cute.” Jeff smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re listed in his phone with a heart after your name by the way.”

Hockey players chirped each other, Harvey knew, maybe that’s what Jeff was doing in a very weird way that was making Harvey’s heart beat double time. The door to the room banged behind them and Harvey turned towards it.

“What the fuck are you up to Swoops?” Kent said when his wild eyes landed on Jeff.

Jeff put his hands up in supplication. “Nothing, nothing. Just talking to your good _friend_ here.” He winked at Harvey and slipped past Kent out into the hall.

Kent watched him go for a moment before turning towards Harvey. “Seriously though, what did he say to you?”

Harvey looked down at Kent. He hadn’t realized how much taller he was until that moment - he was always taller than people but Kent was so small. He’d probably fit perfectly under his arm. Harvey shook the thoughts from his head, these were definitely not things he should be thinking about ‘straight golden boy’ Kent Parson.

“Nothing really, he just introduced himself.”

“He didn’t try to tell you embarrassing shit about me?” Kent looked up at him, cheeks tinged pink.

He shook his head with a smile.

Once Kent was assured that Jeff didn’t embarrass him too much, he coerced Harvey into making plans with Kent to go skating on Friday. He couldn’t put off learning any longer. He’d already pushed it back as much as he could and he didn’t want Kent to think he didn’t want to hang out with him. He just prayed he wouldn’t make too much a fool of himself.  

_/\\_

On Friday afternoon he stood by the front entrance to the building, awkwardly waiting for Kent to arrive so he could let him in. It was locked for maintenance all afternoon, even though the crew wouldn’t be arriving for at least an hour.

While the thought of spending an hour alone with his growing crush intimidated him, at least there wouldn’t be anyone else there to witness his humiliating attempts to learn how to skate - well anyone other than Kent freaking Parson - two time Stanley Cup winning champion.

 _Oh god._ He was so screwed.

Harvey was contemplating turning out all the lights and pretending he forgot when he saw Kent’s Mercedez pull into the parking lot. Harvey watched as Kent leapt out of the car and shot him an enthusiastic grin before hopping up to the door.

“Hey,” Kent said as Harvey opened the door and locked it behind him. “Are you ready?”

Harvey groaned and snagged the pair of skates he’d left out of the rental box as he followed Kent to the rink. “If you mean do I feel like I’m about to vomit - then yes, I’m ready.”

Kent threw his head back and laughed. The sound made Harvey’s heart jump. There was a blast of manufactured icy air as they pulled open the door to the rink and made their way to a bench to slip on their skates.

Kent was already laced up and snapping a picture of his skates with his phone before Harvey even had his shoes off.

“Instagram,” Kent said conspiratorially. “Hashtag can’t get enough of this.”

“Is your phone even capable of instagram?” Harvey said, attempting to chirp him, though the way his hands were vibrating on the laces lost a bit of the effect.

Kent glanced up at him and shifted a little closer on the bench so their knees were touching. “Hey,” he said bumping Harvey’s shoulder gently, “It’s really not as scary as it seems Harvard. You’ll be fine. I’ve got you.”

Harvey finished lacing his skates and shot Kent a tremulous smile. He took a deep breath. He could do this, he worked at an ice rink for god's sake.

Kent stretched out a hand to help him up. Harvey clasped Kent’s hand and heaved himself up off the bench. He could feel his own erratic heartbeat through his palm and dropped Kent’s hand as soon as he was standing. He only hoped Kent had chalked up the rapid pulse to his fear of skating. He should’ve worn gloves.

Harvey took one wobbly step, almost falling and he wasn’t even on the ice yet. Harvey held onto the wall with a death grip as he stepped out onto the ice, afraid his feet would slide out from underneath him any second.

“Okay,” Kent said turning to smile at him. “You want to have a back and forth movement like this.” He skated away from Harvey slowly before stopping sharply and coming back towards him. “Now you try.”

It probably would’ve been smart to pay attention to what Kent’s legs were doing during the demonstration instead of ogling his ass, but it was a little too late for that now. Kent skated a little ways again and Harvey made a point of paying attention this time. Once Kent was back by his side Harvey pushed off the wall to try for himself.

He skated semi-successfully for two long strides before the edge of his blade got stuck in a divot and he went flying. He would’ve crashed down onto the ice had it not been for the strong sure hands catching him and righting him easily.

Harvey’s face flushed at the feel of Kent’s hands on him.

“You alright?”

Harvey nodded, “Yeah this is harder than it looks. And it already looks hard.”

Kent drew his hands back and Harvey felt the loss keenly. “I could grab one of the kiddy cones for you to use,” Kent said with a teasing smirk.

“Oh hell no,” Harvey said. “This is already humiliating enough.

“Well I guess my hand will have to suffice then,” Kent said, wiggling his fingers in an invitation.

Harvey’s heart thudded loudly and he wished he’d thought to turn on the stereo system throughout the rink. As soon as Harvey grabbed Kent’s hand the other man began leading him around the rink. Harvey stumbled on his skates and leaned heavily on their clasped hands to keep himself from falling.

After the fifth near fall he apologized to Kent, surely this wasn’t how he wanted to spend his day off.

Kent smiled up at him and either Harvey had fallen and was hallucinating or Kent just squeezed his hand. “I don’t mind,” Kent said shrugging. “You do kinda suck at this though.”

“Hey,” Harvey said indignantly, “Not all of us can be professional athletes. I would totally kick your ass doing something else.”

Kent raised an eyebrow. “Challenge accepted.”

Harvey lost his footing for a second and used both hands to cling to Kent, before righting himself. “Just tell me the time and place and you’re on.”

Kent guided them slowly around the curve, still keeping a tight grip on Harvey’s hand. “Have you ever roller bladed before?” Kent asked as Harvey tripped once more. “Because it’s kind of similar to skating.”

Harvey shook his head. Growing up he’d only been invited to an roller rink once, it was over an hour away from his house and his parents hadn’t been able to drive him. “I was more of a skateboarder than a roller blader.”  

Kent smirked at him. “Oh my god I can totally see it now. Cool as fuck Harvard Harvey skating around-”

“You do know Harvard isn’t my name, right?”

Kent waved him off, “Skateboarding in the parking lot after school. I bet you had a bunch of people drooling after you.”

Harvey shook his head, “Nah,” he said. “I was kind of an outcast. People either ignored me or picked on me. There wasn’t much in between. My roommate Tara was pretty much the only person who spoke to me up until college.” Harvey felt like he’d dragged the teasing happy mood down. He smiled and flexed his bicep. “I wasn’t born with these muscles.”

Kent laughed and squeezed his arm with the hand Harvey wasn’t holding with a deathgrip. “Damn,” Kent whistled and Harvey was going to die. “You lift.”

Harvey winked at Kent in an attempt to appear unaffected by the hand still wrapped around his upper arm. At that moment Harvey must’ve skated too wide because suddenly Kent was tripping and using the hands on him to try to regain his balance. Unfortunately for Kent, Harvey wasn’t nearly steady enough on skates for their roles to be reversed and both of them went crashing down to the ice.

Their legs tangled up in a heap and the cool ice started to dampen Harvey’s jeans. Kent was shaking and for a moment Harvey worried that he’d gotten hurt. A second later he realized Kent was laughing. He was laughing so hard no sound escaped him and Harvey felt himself start to chuckle in response.

“What’s so funny?” Harvey asked, trying and failing to detangle himself.

“I don’t think I’ve fallen skating without being checked in ten fucking years,” Kent managed to get out between guffaws. Kent wiped at the tears escaping his eyes and stood with an easy grace that would never come to Harvey no matter how much time he spent on ice. Kent extended a hand and Harvey took it gratefully.

They began skating again and while Harvey wasn’t necessarily getting the hang of it, he wasn’t jolting them every two seconds with a near fall. A few minutes later Kent broke the comfortable silence that had stretched between them.

“That’s actually how I got into hockey,” he said.

“What?”

“Bullying,” Kent explained. “I was bullied pretty bad as a kid. After coming home with a split lip and black eye for the third time since school started one fall, my mom enrolled me in a youth hockey group. She thought it might at least make the other kids lay off me a bit.”

Harvey’s heart ached picturing a scrawny blonde kid getting beat up. The bullying he’d enduring as a kid had been more of the verbal kind, though he’d had his fair share of black eyes too.

“That plan totally backfired on her though,” Kent said with a small laugh. “Hockey taught me how to fight, so instead of only me coming home with a black eye there’d be two kids all bruised up…. It was better after that though.”

Harvey squeezed Kent’s hand and hoped he wasn’t crossing a line, but when Kent’s technicolor eyes met his, he smiled.

After skating, Kent cajoled a cold and sore Harvey out to eat. (Harvey would be embarrassed to admit it took very little persuasion on Kent’s part). They ended up at a food truck a couple blocks from the rink.

“The veggie slider is really good here,” Kent said, stepping up in line to order. “Hey Charlie my man, can I get two veggies and…” Kent turned to Harvey, “What’re you getting Harvard?”

“Oh um,” Harvey said. “You don’t have to order mine for -”

Kent waved a hand at him dismissively, “My treat dude.”

“Uh the dirty joe,” Harvey said, picking the first item he saw on the menu.

“Good choice,” the guy in the truck said, taking the cash from Kent as he went into the back to grab their food. “So Kent,” he said with his back to them as he slapped a couple patties on the grill. “How’s the cat doing?”

“She’s good,” Kent smiled. “You’ll never believe what she did yesterday morning,” he said, launching into a tale involving Kit somehow managing to open Kent’s fridge and knock nearly everything from the shelves. Harvey smiled as he listened to Kent talk and marveled at how easy it was for the man to make friends.

Harvey had never been particularly popular, even once he was out of high school he’d only had a small group of friends in college - sure they were close, but he’d always wondered what it’d be like to be someone who came into a party a stranger and left everyone’s friend. He suspected Kent was someone like that.

Once they got their food Kent led them over towards a bench and plopped down in the middle. Harvey sat beside him and eyed his burger, regretting his choice as soon as he saw how ridiculously messy the burger/sloppy joe combo would be.

“So Harvard,” Kent said in between bites. “How’d you end up in Sin City?”

Harvey balanced his plate on his lap and leaned forward to take a bite of his burger, grease and sauce slipping out the back and plop plopping down onto his plate. “Um,” he said, trying to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand, “I grew up just outside of Vegas in Henderson. I moved to California for school and lived there for a couple years after I graduated, but,” he shrugged, “my grandma wasn’t doing too well so I came back home almost three years ago now and have been here ever since.”

“How’s your grandma now?” Kent asked softly.

“She passed on a few months after I came home.”

Kent wrapped his fingers around Harvey’s wrist and squeezed. He opened his mouth, about to apologize Harvey knew, but he cut him off.

“Jeez bullying, dead relatives, I’m really doing a good job with the small talk today.”

Kent smiled at him and released Harvey’s wrist, taking a big bite out of his burger. “Well it could be worse,” Kent’s eyes lit up mischievously. “You could have ordered the messiest food in the world and be trying really hard not to be a slob but actually have food on your nose.”

Harvey swiped at his nose with the back of his hand, cheeks heating.

Kent laughed, “You definitely just made it ten times worse.”

Harvey groaned. “Well feel free to leave me to my shame. It was nice being friends with you while it lasted, I had hoped to make it to hanging out at least twice but…” Harvey smiled and shrugged in a _what can you do_ sort of gesture.

Kent handed Harvey a napkin and smiled. “Nah bro, you can’t get rid of me that easily. This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

Harvey wiped the napkin across his nose and glanced at Kent surreptitiously. He wondered for the first time if having a ton of friends meant not having any close ones. He wanted to be there for Kent, if the man let him.

_/\\_

The following Friday Harvey went out clubbing with Tara. It had been far too long since either of them had been to a bar, according to her, and Harvey had learned a long time ago that it was best to agree with her, especially when it came to alcohol.

He and Kent had gotten the chance to hang out a couple more times since they went ice skating, with Harvey bribing Leo, the mechanical tech, to watch things for him so he could take his lunch when Kent did. Introducing the guy to his sister in exchange would definitely be worth it, especially since he’d been planning on doing so anyway.  But tonight he wanted to let loose and release the sexual tension he’d been carrying around with him ever since he’d caught Kent naked in the locker room and maybe make out with a cute definitely not straight boy.

They were out at a not-not-gay bar that was at the edge of the strip and usually populated by a mixture of locals and tourists alike. He and Tara were scoping the bar for cute guys when she dragged him out onto the dance floor.

“Don’t look now but there’s a hottie at two o’clock,” she said, pointing in a direction that was most definitely not at two o’clock for either of them, but Harvey wasn’t about to call her out on it.

“For you or for me,” he asked, not turning to look at the guy.

Tara’s grin turned predatory as she slung her arms around his neck and ground her body into his. “Me, definitely.”

Tara’s method of getting guys to approach her often involved dancing seductively with Harvey while making bedroom eyes at the guy and/or completely ignoring him until he cut in. The first time she did it Harvey was certain his presence would scare the other guy away, but time and again it worked, so either Harvey gave off super gay vibes, or Tara dancing was hot enough that they were willing to risk being punched in the face for a chance with her. Harvey thought it was the latter.

For him, on the other hand, dancing with Tara - while sexy and fun - scared off more guys than it attracted, especially when they were at a place like this where it wasn’t guaranteed any guy there was gay. He didn’t mind though, he needed at least two more drinks before he was willing to find a guy for himself anyway. So for now he wrapped his hands low on Tara’s waist and ground their hips together in time with the music.

Tara shifted them both until he was standing where she had been, presumably facing the guy whose attention she was trying to attract. Tara leaned forward, and to anyone watching them it probably looked like she was nibbling on his ear.

“The guy on the far right of the group in the back by the bar. Tall, dark haired and fucking built.”

Tara spun quickly in his arms so her ass was pressed up against his crotch and dropped low before pulling back up in a slow sensual move that would likely have sent any straight man in the room’s heart racing. She tilted her head back and looked up at him as though she weren’t at all interested in anyone else. Harvey glanced away from her to search for the guy she was talking about, swaying with her to the music all the while.

His hips stuttered and he lost the rhythm for a moment as he caught the gaze of the guy she undoubtedly had her eye on.

“That’s Jeff Troy,” his voice sounded high pitched and weird. The music was suddenly too loud as his gaze shifted from Troy to the man standing beside him. Kent wasn’t looking at the dance floor, his face half hidden as he whispered furiously in Jeff’s ear, but even with the obstructed view Harvey was positive it was him.

“Like from the Aces?” Tara asked, whipping her gaze back toward the men. “Oh my god I didn’t even recognize him.” They both were horribly off beat by now and Harvey dropped his hands from her waist completely. No point in keeping up the pretense.

“Want me to introduce you?” he asked, stepping away from the sweaty pulsing bodies on the dance floor.

“Oh my god,” Tara said again, covering her face with her hands. “This is so embarrassing he probably thinks I’m some crazy fan and like stalking him or something oh my -”

Harvey put his hands on her shoulders to calm her and fought the urge to smile at the knowledge that the stoic woman wasn’t so unruffled after all. “Relax Tara,” Harvey said, “Jeff is a pretty chill guy and he definitely won’t think some random person dancing with _another_ guy is stalking him.”

“Oh you’re totally right,” Tara said, face flushing, “This is so embarrassing. Leave me, save yourself and let me stew in my shame.”

“Oh my god Tara,” Harvey said laughing. “Just come meet the guy.”

Tara looked about ready to flee, but Harvey took her hand and began weaving his way through the crowd, leading her over towards the handful of Las Vegas Aces at the bar. By the time they reached the Aces, every one of the guys had their eyes on Tara, including Kent, which definitely didn’t make Harvey’s stomach sink a little or anything.

“Hey Harvard,” Mottler said, bumping his fist. Ever since he’d started talking to Kent, the other Aces had seemed to suddenly notice Harvey's existence. “How’s it going man?” Mottler’s voice was slightly slurred and he was rather openly ogling Tara, not that she even noticed. Her hand was wrapped around his in a vice like grip and her eyes were locked onto the floor before her.

“Good, good.” He glanced at Kent and the man looked _pissed._ Harvey had to fight the urge to duck away from his gaze. “How’re you guys doing, celebrating the night off?” He went to release Tara’s hand, but she just squeezed it harder. Kent’s gaze flicked down their hands before back up to meet his.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Kent asked low and venomous. Harvey shrunk back.

“Um,” he flicked a glance at the other Aces before looking back to Kent. “Dancing with Tara since this is a club?”

Kent’s face twisted into a scowl and Tara side stepped closer to Harvey. Without a word Kent turned on his heel and stormed off into the crowd. Jeff, finally shaken from his trance called after Kent before turning to them apologetically.

“Sorry,” he said, as the other Aces returned to scanning the club. “He already wasn’t having a good night since we’re headed to Providence tomorrow to play the Falconer’s Sunday, and well,” he shrugged gesturing to Tara and Harvey in a way that had Harvey’s buzzed brain struggling to catch up.

“We’re not together,” Tara said, releasing her death grip on Harvey’s hand. And Harvey was Confused with a capital C.

“Oh,” Jeff said, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I’m Jeffrey Troy.”

“Oh shit, sorry,” Harvey said, “This is my roommate Tara Marsden. Tara, Swoops.”

Tara reached out to shake his hand and let her fingers linger longer than Harvey thought necessary, though it didn’t seem Swoops minded. When it seemed like Tara and Troy were content to stand there staring at one another indefinitely Harvey cleared his throat.

“So what’s up with Kent?” he asked, hoping he sounded casual.

Jeff shook himself before elbowing Mottler. “Yo man, go find Parser and tell him to stop being an asshole and come meet Harvard’s _roommate._ ”

Mottler nodded before disappearing into the crowd. A few moments later he returned with a chagrined looking Parson in tow.

“Sorry,” Kent said to Harvey’s shoes. “I was in a pissy mood and I didn’t mean to take it out on you, or your friend,” he added, glancing at Tara and offering her a small smile. “Can we start over? I’m Kent Parson,” he said, reaching out a hand.

Tara took his hand graciously and shook it. “Tara Marsden.”

After introducing himself, Kent turned to Harvey and pulled him away from the group a bit. “I really am sorry Corbin.”

Harvey jolted at the use of his first name, but before Harvey could assure him it was fine, Kent continued on.

“I have impulse issues and I need to learn to reign in my temper and apologize when I screw up. I have to own up to my own issues and stop lashing out when other people act in ways I don’t expect,” he recited as though it were a script. He sent Harvey a tentative grin. “It only took half a decade of therapy to get to this point.”

Harvey clasped Kent on the shoulder and offered him a smile. “We’re good Kent.”

Tara and Jeff had been chatting almost non-stop since they’d been introduced, but after getting a couple more drinks, Harvey touched Tara’s elbow to interrupt, because he was really in the mood to kiss a cute boy and that was a dangerous thought to be having when standing less than two feet away from Kent Parson.

“Wanna dance?” he asked, trying to tell her with his eyes that he really really needed her to say yes.

Tara could read his look better than anyone. He could read hers just as easily and she desperately wanted to keep talking to Jeff but he knew she would say yes anyway.

That is, at least until Jeff interrupted. “You should dance with Parser,” he said, eyes lighting up with mischievousness. “Because he sucks at dancing and could definitely use some guidance.”

Harvey turned to glance at Kent, whose face was flushed a deep red, whether from alcohol or embarrassment Harvey couldn’t tell. He smiled at him, “I could teach you if you want, return the ice skating favor.” Harvey shrugged.

This was possibly the dumbest idea he’d ever had. He was just thinking that he needed to get _further_ from Kent and now he was inviting the other man closer. Luckily the kind of dancing Kent would want to do was not the kind of dancing he’d been doing with Tara. Still, his only hope was that Kent would say no.

“Okay,” Kent said with a shrug before walking out onto the dance floor without waiting for Harvey to follow.

“You good here Tara?” Harvey asked.

Tara rolled her eyes at him good naturedly and gave him a firm shove towards the dance floor. Harvey’s heart thudded anxiously as he made his way through the pulsing shifting bodies through to the center of the dance floor where Kent was doing something that was probably considered dancing in some cultures.

Kent’s eyes lit up when he saw Harvey and grabbed his hand to pull him closer.  Kent’s hand was warm and his smile happy and Harvey’s heart gave a traitorous ba-bump. He was in trouble.

“Okay big guy,” Kent said, releasing Harvey’s hand. “Show me your moves.”

Harvey let the music flow through him and began dancing how he would when he went out with the straight guys he’d been friends with in college - keeping a safe amount of space between himself and Kent.

Kent watched him for a moment before doing a weird shuffle-jig that looked a little too much like how the characters in Charlie Brown danced. Harvey smiled unabashedly at the ridiculousness of the moment. He was in a club with Kent Parson who - while perhaps the hottest human being to roam the planet - was the most unsexy dancer Harvey had ever seen. He almost wondered if Kent danced with exaggerated awkwardness on purpose.

“What are you doing?” he asked, half shouting to be heard over the music.

Kent stopped the weird up and down hand motion he’d been doing and stepped closer to Harvey. Harvey tried to backup, but he bumped into someone and was jostled from behind.

“Hey, if you don’t like my dancing then teach me.” Kent’s eyes were sharp, flashing gold in green.

“Well just do what I’m doing,” Harvey said, letting his hips swing to the beat, exaggerating the motion for Kent to copy.

Kent shook his head and stepped even closer, so he and Harvey were nearly touching. Kent tilted his head up to look at him and wrapped an arm loosely around his neck. Harvey couldn’t breathe. He was going to die of sexual frustration in the back of a Vegas nightclub with Kent freaking Parson as his witness.

Kent pulled slightly on the back of his neck and Harvey ducked down to oblige him. Kent leaned up on his tiptoes and he was going to kiss him - Harvey was sure of it. Kent was going to kiss him in the middle of a crowded club. He sucked in a shaky breath, eyes already half lidded in anticipation.

But instead of closing the gap between their mouths, Kent diverted his path and spoke directly into his ear. “I want you to teach me how to dance like you were before.”

Harvey wasn’t sure he’d heard Kent right, he was kind of drunk and his brain was slow to catch up. How would he be helpful in teaching Kent how to dance with girls? He started to ask how, before Kent dropped down off his tiptoes and swung his other arm up around Harvey’s neck and began moving his hips only slightly off beat.

Instinct took over and Harvey’s hands dropped down to Kent’s waist, guiding him so they moved together, delicious and slow. And maybe he had no idea what was going on but he didn’t care because Kent was in his arms.

They danced together, Kent slowly getting better at staying on beat and Harvey slowly getting bolder. The rest of the room melted away as he thrust his hips forward, grinding them together with Kent’s. Kent’s fingers drifted up to scratch through his hair and Harvey was on fire. Kent’s face flushed with pleasure as they moved together, his lips parted almost in invitation and it took everything in him to remember that Kent was straight and no matter what the two of them were doing together tonight on the dance floor nothing would change that.

Kent dropped low and stood slowly, body brushing against Harvey’s enticingly. When their eyes met Harvey stepped back out of Kent’s embrace hastily. He was hard. He was dancing with a straight man and he was rock fucking hard. Harvey felt a wave of embarrassment wash up over him. He mumbled something about air and ran.


	2. Chapter Two

The next morning Harvey woke up with a painful thudding headache just behind his eyes. He groaned and buried his head back into his pillow. Harvey had spent the rest of the evening subtly avoiding being alone with Kent until Tara finally took pity on him and they left. Just thinking back to the feel of Kent’s warm toned body pressed tightly up against his set his blood coursing downward. 

Harvey groaned again and rolled out of bed, heading to the bathroom for some much needed advil. He had only just dry swallowed the pills and made a half assed attempt at brushing his teeth when Tara bombarded him at the door to the hall. 

“Oh my god,” she said, far too loud for Harvey’s hangover. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a thing with Kent fucking Parson?” 

Harvey pushed past her into the living room and plopped down onto the couch. “I have no clue what you’re talking about and my head feels like it’s about to explode.” 

Tara leapt up onto the couch beside him as though she were a cat. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and held it up to him. Harvey glanced at it to humor her and his gaze got caught on the photo. It was of him and Kent dancing and  _ god  _ he looked about two seconds away from kissing the man. 

Their heads were bent together and a mischievous smile played at Kent’s lips, head tilted back to meet Harvey’s gaze, arms wrapped loosely around Harvey’s neck. Harvey’s hands were low enough on Kent’s waist that they were out of frame and from the angle, it could be argued they rested on Kent’s ass. The pure lust on his own face was as plain to see as the logo on his shirt. 

“When did you take this?” 

Tara took her phone back and bit her lip. “I didn’t.” She clicked a couple of times before handing it back to him. 

The picture was small at the top of the screen, Harvey scanned down the page and bit back a groan. It was a TMZ article. The picture of him and Kent was a fucking TMZ article. He was too hungover for this shit. “Fuck,” he murmured, handing the phone back to Tara. “I can’t look. How bad is it.” He hung his head in his hands.

Tara nudged him gently until he looked up and met her gaze. “It’s not bad, don’t worry. You aren’t even front page worthy.” 

Harvey stared at her in bewilderment - how were there not hundreds of articles speculating about Kent’s sexuality after such a compromising picture of the two of them together? As if sensing his thoughts, Tara shot him a sympathetic smile. 

“The article basically just talks about Kent Parson, leading scorer and captain of the Las Vegas Aces,” Tara said with what he supposed was her imitation of a sports reporter voice, “spent the night clubbing with friends. They didn’t even bother to look you up. The caption of the photo is literally, Kent Parson with friend at High Tops night club.” 

Harvey breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t hide his sexuality - he didn’t broadcast it either, but still he would’ve felt like complete and utter shit if he had caused problems for Kent. 

“I’ve got to give him a heads up.” He grabbed his phone off the coffee table where he’d left it the night before and shot off a quick text to Kent. 

10:21 am _ : Hey, don’t know if you saw  _ _ this _ _ but I’m so sorry man.  _

His phone buzzed less than a minute later. 

10:21 am _ : Dude why tho?  _

Before Harvey could obsess over what that meant, three texts pinged his phone, one after the other. 

10:21 am: _ If anything i should be apologizing to u. like this is all my fault that you got caught up in  the pappparazzi shit  _

10:21 am: _ paparazzi* _

10:22 am: _ lemme take u out to dinner tonight to make up for it _

Harvey stared at his phone wordlessly. 

“What’d he say?” Tara asked, leaning over his shoulder to read his screen. She whistled. “Damn. Boy is smooth.” 

Harvey tapped out a quick affirmative response before looking at Tara. “Sorry, what’d you say?” 

“Nothing.” Tara shook her head and ruffled his hair before getting up off the couch in search of food.    


_/\\_

With no indication of where they were going for the evening, other than the instructions to “dress sorta fancy but not like overdone” whatever that meant, Harvey surveyed his closet. He’d tried on three different shirts before chastising himself with the reminder that he was not a preteen about to go on his first date. He was just going to have dinner with a friend. 

When he walked out into the living room Tara wolf whistled at him and he felt good about his choice of dark wash skinny jeans and light blue button down. Harvey rolled his eyes at Tara’s teasing about his hot date, before hustling out the door. When he got down to the lobby of his building Kent was waiting there with his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans and missing his almost ever present snapback. His eyes lit up when he spotted Harvey and he waved him over. 

“Nice place,” Kent said, as he led Harvey out of the building. He’d insisted on picking Harvey up as opposed to meeting there since that would reveal their mystery location. 

Harvey scoffed. “Sure and I’m the queen of Egypt.” 

Kent cracked a smile and ran his fingers through his hair as they approached his car. His cowlick was standing straight on end and Harvey couldn’t fight the urge to reach out and attempt to brush it down. His finger ran gently over the lock, brushing lightly across his forehead in an effort to keep it down. Kent froze beneath his fingers, but the second Harvey lifted his hand the cowlick sprung back up. 

“Okay that did absolutely nothing,” Harvey said, eyeing the stubborn hair. 

Kent shrugged and turned away, face flushed bright. Harvey felt bad for bringing up what was apparently a sore subject. He slid into the front seat as Kent walked around the car and climbed in. 

“So where are we going?” Harvey asked as Kent pulled out onto the street. 

Kent huffed out a laugh and glanced at him with a smile that made his heart skip. “It’s a surprise Harvard.” 

Twenty minutes later they pulled up to a sort of dingy looking building far from the strip and anything else other than highway. The brick was old and weathered, and not in the intentional way that the designers on Tara’s (and Harvey’s) favorite HGTV show liked to do. A couple of windows on the first floor had boards over them, while the glass of the second story was completely, unnaturally dark. Kent got out of the car and was around to Harvey’s side, opening his door while Harvey tried to see through the dingy exterior. 

“Is this the part where you murder me and sell my kidney?” 

Kent laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the seat with strength that still managed to surprise him. He released Harvey’s hand as soon as he was standing and bumped their shoulders together. 

“Nah,” he said. “It might not look like it, but this place is the best kept secret of Vegas.” Kent led them up to the door and swung it open revealing what looked like an ordinary hallway, perhaps a bit more upkept than Harvey would’ve expected judging by the exterior. Without missing a beat Kent walked down the hall and turned the corner to a staircase, with Harvey close behind him. Up the stairs there was yet another door. 

Before they even reached it, the door opened for them and a young man wearing all black glanced at the pair of them. “Mr. Parson? West corner table for two?”  

Kent smiled at the kid and nodded. 

“Right this way.” 

Stepping through the door was like entering an alternate universe. The ceiling was spotted with dark wooden beams and hanging lanterns.  The floor was white marble and there were only a half dozen tables, all spaced widely apart. A waterfall decorated the far wall and a piano was in the corner, with a woman dressed in a red cocktail dress at its keys. Harvey felt suddenly underdressed. 

They were led to a table next to a huge window that overlooked the city. A menu was already waiting at each of the seats and the host pulled out the chair for each of them before disappearing back to the door. 

“Okay,” Kent said, gaze flitting away from Harvey down to his menu before back up again. “This restaurant is pretty exclusive. So you won’t find this place on any website or Vegas guide map. I figured we’d be safe from the paparazzi here. And since I’m apologizing for them it’d be sorta shitty of me to invite you out someplace where there might be paparazzi again.” 

Paparazzi, right. Harvey had to remind himself that this wasn’t a date. Kent Parson was straight and just a friend. He could not be crushing on him. If he repeated himself often enough maybe it’d be true.  

It seemed like Kent was waiting for him to say something so he stopped silently reprimanding himself and smiled at Kent. “It looks perfect.” 

Harvey glanced down at the menu and the lack of prices made his stomach twist. “Uh, should I be worried about how much this place costs?” 

Kent waved a dismissive hand. “I got it man.” 

“Kent Parson,” Harvey said, reprimanding. 

“Corbin Harvey.” Kent smirked at him. 

“Ugh fine,” Harvey threw his hands up in the air. “But you have to let me treat next time.” 

Kent’s smirk melted into a smile. “Deal.” 

It seemed like the instant they both figured out what they wanted a waitress appeared. She took their orders and their menus before disappearing once more. Other than the soft murmurs coming from the other patrons and the tinkling keys of the piano the restaurant was quieter than any other he’d ever been in. 

“So how’d you find this place?” Harvey asked, taking a sip of his water. 

“My ex’s dad actually added me to the approved patrons list.” 

Harvey raised his brows. “What is he like a movie star or something?” 

“Or something,” Kent said with a small smile. 

“Wow,” Harvey said, not pressing further, “I can’t imagine rubbing elbows with the rich and famous like that.” 

“You do realize who you’re out to dinner with, right?” 

Harvey laughed, “Wow and humble too.” 

Kent laughed and tilted his glass towards Harvey in a silent toast. “Touché.” 

They chatted for a few minutes before the waitress came by with their food, and Harvey had to marvel at how quick the service was. He took a bite of his steak and had to choke back a moan. From the look on Kent’s face he was in a similar state of ecstasy.

“So,” Harvey said after a moment, pushing the food around on his fork.  “Sorry again if you’re getting any grief about that picture.” 

“Hey,” Kent said, wrapping his fingers around Harvey’s wrist to stay his movements. “Don’t even worry about it. Heteronormativity man,” Kent shook his head, fingers brushing absentmindedly across Harvey’s wrist. “I could kiss you and they’d be like  _ Kent and friend goofing off at five star restaurant alone together. _ ”

Harvey’s breath caught.  _ I could kiss you. _ The words were running on a constant loop and he knew that Kent didn’t mean anything by it but his stomach erupted in butterflies anyway. Harvey met his gaze and smiled. 

“Yeah,” he said, “It’s pretty fucked.” 

“Take me for instance,” Kent continued with a shrug before shoveling in another bite. 

It took a minute for Harvey to figure out what he was talking about. But then one of the first conversations they’d shared came back to him. He smiled, remembering Kent’s confusion when Harvey had told him Audrey was having a kid. He nodded at Kent, Harvey still sometimes looked at the world with his heteronormative goggles on too.  

The sun set and the city stretched out before them, all that light and glitz nothing more than pinpricks in the distance. By the time dessert arrived Harvey could honestly say he couldn’t remember ever having a more pleasant evening. And that was before he bit into the almost orgasmic Amedei Porcelana chocolate sundae. 

“So uh,” Kent said, taking a bite from his gross vanilla cake thing. “I feel like I still owe you an apology, not just for the paparazzi thing, but because I sort of freaked out on you when I first saw you at the club.” 

Harvey waved a dismissive hand. “Forget about it,” he said taking another bite of literal chocolate heaven. “You were forgiven before you bought me the best fucking sundae in the world and now I feel like I should be apologizing to you again for not being a good enough human being to deserve this.” 

Kent barked out a laugh and shoveled a bite into his mouth. “Well at least let me explain why I was already on edge when we got to the club.” 

Harvey nodded at him to continue, trying in vain to slow down so he wouldn’t get brain freeze. 

“Playing the Falconers is always kinda shitty for me, since they drafted Zimms - er Jack Zimmerman.” Harvey could vaguely remember reading something about the two of them before, but he’d honestly only been a casual hockey fan when he was growing up and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to presume from what Kent was saying. Luckily Kent seemed to take pity on him. “We were in the Q together and supposed to be drafted together. A bunch of shitty dominoes led to me being drafted by the Aces and him spending years finding his footing before eventually ending up with the Falconers.” 

Kent looked uncomfortable and Harvey ached to reach out for him but held back, unsure if the touch would be welcome or not. 

“Anyway, we didn’t leave things well and it’s just gotten worse and more toxic over the years. I’d just botched up another apology when I met you actually.” Kent’s eyes were wide and his bottom lip started twitching. He dug his teeth into his lip.  

_ Fuck it _ , Harvey thought, reaching across the table to clasp Kent’s hand. Kent glanced up at him in surprise and Harvey smiled at him. 

“Try again.” 

“What?” 

“Try apologizing again,” Harvey said, maybe he shouldn’t get involved, but he never was good at keeping quiet when people he cared about were in pain. “You’re not going to be able to let it go and move on completely until you two clear the air.” 

Kent pulled his hand away and took a large bite of his dessert, chewing methodically before speaking. “I’ve tried apologizing before. It doesn’t end well. I’m pretty sure there’s no way Jack would forgive me now.” 

“My Nan used to say apologize and don’t make the same mistake again. If they forgive you is up to them, but at least you’ll sleep knowing you did everything you could to make things right.” 

Kent was quiet for a moment mulling over his words. “I’ll try. I want to make things right. It’s just they’ve been wrong between us for so long I think we’ve forgotten how to be friends.” 

“Start with that,” Harvey said. “Be sincere and he’ll have to listen.” 

_/\\_

The next day Harvey watched the game streaming live onto his laptop as much as he could while working, wondering if Kent had already taken his advice or if he was waiting until after the game. He wanted to try to call Kent after press, but a drunken parent with a laundry list of complaints followed by the peewee manager needing to discuss next month’s schedule  _ right now _ kept him busy long enough that he worried Kent was already to bed with the time difference. 

Harvey sighed as he grabbed his briefcase from beside his desk and shut off his light. He stepped out into the hall and nearly collided into a woman on the cleaning crew. He apologized quickly and started heading towards the exit. His phone chimed in his pocket. A smile lit up his face as he saw the caller id.  

“Harvard!” Kent said, before Harvey could say much more than hello. “I was hoping to catch you.” 

“Well you caught me. Sorry about the game tonight by the way.” 

“I don’t care about that.” Kent said dismissively. “I called to tell you that I took your advice and actually made it all the way through an apology to Jack and he apologized to me too! We even have plans to grab lunch before I have to fly back to Vegas tomorrow.” 

Harvey could hear the wide, uninhibited smile in Kent’s voice and he was struck by the wayward thought that he might be getting addicted to Kent’s happiness.“I like seeing you happy,” he said before he could stop himself.  

“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t shoot their  husbands, they just don’t.” 

Harvey pulled his phone away from his ear for a second, wondering if he was losing his mind. 

“It’s from Legally Blonde,” Kent said, when Harvey still hadn’t responded. “You’ve seen it haven’t you?” 

“Uh, no.” At least it was only a missed reference and he wasn’t going crazy. 

“It’s a classic,” Kent said, outraged. “Oh my god what are you doing tomorrow night?” 

“Nothing really.” Harvey shrugged, he was probably just going to be at home and chill with Tara. 

“Okay well we have to watch it as soon as I get back to Vegas. I can’t believe you’ve never seen it.” Kent gasped. “Oh that means you’ll get to meet Kit.” 

Harvey smiled fondly. “I can’t wait.” 

_/\\_

Kent’s apartment wasn’t as extravagant as Harvey had expected. It was nice, cozy even, but not excessively huge or ultra modern. His couch was sleek gray and huge, yet somehow they managed to sit close enough that their shoulders were touching less than halfway through the movie and Harvey had to admit it was a pretty good movie. 

Harvey had sunk back into the pillows and Kent’s head had lolled onto his shoulder less than ten minutes later. Harvey’s heart fluttered. He was in so much trouble. He should’ve roused Kent or left, or shifted over so Kent wasn’t leaning on him but he didn’t and now he only had himself to blame for the situation he was in. 

He must’ve fallen asleep at some point after the movie and subsequent late night tv marathon because he woke up laying on the couch with a warm pressure on his chest. Cracking an eye open revealed Kent was nestled into his side, head tucked under his chin, legs tangled together. Harvey’s arms were wrapped tightly around him. 

He tried to slowly extract himself, but before he’d gotten himself out of the compromising situation Kent was shifting away and shooting him a shy smile. 

“Sorry I passed out on you,” he said, rubbing his eyes. 

Harvey was suddenly flooded with emotions he’d been trying hard to ignore. He couldn’t deny it any longer. 

_ He was in love with Kent.  _

“What time is it?” Kent mumbled, blissfully unaware of Harvey’s revelation.  

Harvey glanced down at his watch and tried to act normal. “Quarter past seven.” 

Kent groaned and flopped back down, tugging Harvey with him until they were cuddled up again. “It’s too early. Go back to sleep.” 

“I could - I should probably be getting home.” 

Kent cracked an eye open and peered at him. “If you want to,” he said, wrapping his arms around Harvey as though he were a giant teddy bear. “But I’ve got nothing better to do until a charity thing at noon so you’re welcome to stay.” 

Against his better judgement Harvey relaxed in Kent’s embrace and fell back asleep. He was too tall for the couch really, and his neck was at a sort of odd angle with Kent’s boney elbow pressed up into his side. He’d never slept better. 

_/\\_

A couple days later he was trying to catch up on his emails when he heard the door to his office creak open. Harvey looked up and smiled when he saw Jeff standing in the doorway. 

“Hey, you busy man?” 

“No,” Harvey said, turning away from the computer. “I could use a distraction.” 

Jeff smiled and plopped down in the chair across from his desk. 

“What’s up? I hear you’ve been texting Tara.” 

A brilliant flush crept up Jeff’s cheeks and Harvey had to fight the urge to laugh. 

“Yeah,” he said, running a hand through his hair before turning his sharp gaze on Harvey. “But I didn’t come here to talk about that.” 

“What did you come here to talk about?” 

A cheshire smile broke out on his face. “Kent told me  _ all about  _ your dinner the other day,” he said, voice teasing. 

Harvey sighed contentedly and smiled. “It was nice.” 

The grin on Jeff’s face was far too pleased and Harvey schooled his expression. He had to remind himself that Jeff lived to chirp Kent, and Harvey by extension.

“You jealous bro?” Harvey asked, before Jeff got a chance to tease him.  

Jeff laughed. “Nah man, I don’t mind sharing. I just figured Parser has been in too good of a mood lately for me not to chirp him. And the best way to do that is definitely through you. So tell him I told you some embarrassing shit when you guys talk later, would you?” 

Harvey huffed out a laugh. “Alright.” 

Jeff winked as he stood. “Thanks Harvard.”   

As Harvey was leaving the rink that evening he shot a text to Kent before pocketing his phone with a mischievous smile. 

_ Jeff came by earlier to talk about our dinner.  _

He’d only just sat down in his car when his phone buzzed a moment later. Kent was calling him. Harvey had barely said hello before Kent was speaking. 

“OH MY GOD. What did that fucker say now? I swear I’m going to murder him - ”

“Relax,” Harvey said, “Kent man chill. Jeff was just trying to mess with you. What would there be to be embarrassed about anyway.” 

“Right,” Kent said sighing, “Right sorry, I just thought - well it’s not like Jeff would do anything to hurt me - just embarrass me.” 

“Exactly,” Harvey said, “Hey speaking of dinner, you want to come over to my place tonight? Tara and I were planning on making tacos.” 

Harvey could practically hear the smile in Kent’s voice as he responded. “Definitely.” 

Kent was a tactile person, Harvey decided, when Kent swung an arm around his shoulder as he stood beside him in the kitchen. It was the fourth time he touched Harvey that evening - not that he was counting - even if Tara kept wiggling her eyebrows at him when Kent was distracted. 

Harvey was cutting up tomato for the tacos when he felt a hand on his ass. He whipped his head around to see Kent pickpocketing him. 

“What are you doing?” Harvey asked, voice an octave higher than normal. 

Kent slipped the phone from Harvey’s pocket and held it up in triumph. “Putting on music.” 

Harvey tried to ignore the look Tara was giving him and watched as Kent typed in his password and pulled up spotify, putting on a pop playlist. 

“How do you know my password?” Harvey asked, as Kent walked over to the cupboard and pulled out a glass, dropping the phone into it to amplify the sound. 

“Your birthday isn’t all that original of a password.” Kent turned back to Harvey with a smirk before sharing a commiserating look with Tara. 

Tara laughed and passed Kent a red pepper to chop before setting a pan on the stove for the chicken. “He’s got you there Harvey.” 

While not a particularly impressive chef, Kent was good at following orders, and the tacos came out delicious. The three of them ate perched at the rickety dining room table that was squished in the corner of their kitchen. And rather than marvel over the fact that Kent had somehow managed to worm his way into Harvey’s life and his heart, he decided to just sit back and enjoy it. 

Later that evening after talking, laughing and half watching a dozen reruns of Seinfeld, Harvey was trying to stall Kent’s inevitable departure. Not only did he not want the particularly pleasant evening to end, but he didn’t want to be left alone with Tara either, not with that speculative - almost predatory look on her face. But all too soon Kent was yawning loudly, and shifting away from his position slumped at Harvey’s side to head to the door. 

Harvey walked him out and took a deep breath before returning to what he knew would be an interrogation. 

Tara was perched on the arm of the couch when he returned and patted the seat beside her invitingly. Harvey sighed as he walked over and plopped down, throwing his arm across his face dramatically. 

“Okay, go ahead. I know you’re dying to.” 

Tara pried his arm away from his face and squished down into the seat next to him. “You two are so cute!” 

Harvey rolled his eyes. 

“I’m serious,” Tara said, squeezing his arm. “He’s definitely into you - I’m pretty sure he spent less than ten minutes the entire time he was here  _ not  _ touching you.” 

“He’s straight Tara,” Harvey said. There was no point in getting his hopes up for someone unattainable - not again. 

She put her hand on her hip and stared down at him in a scary imitation of her mother. “What makes you say that?” 

“Um A. because I like him,” Harvey said, ticking off the points on his fingers. “B. he plays hockey, C. I’m pretty sure he was dating some reality star a couple years ago.” 

“Yeah some real rock solid evidence you have there,” Tara said with an eyeroll. “As opposed to oh I don’t know, the fact that he can’t take his eyes off you, he was hella pissed when we were dancing together, he took you out to a five star restaur-” 

“Okay okay enough,” Harvey said covering his ears until Tara took pity on him and turned the T.V back on.

_/\\_

Harvey and Kent hung out often over the following two weeks, grabbing a bite to eat together, watching a movie, or the occasional drink. On one memorable occasion Kent and Harvey were watching a movie at Kent’s place when he put his feet in Harvey’s lap. Harvey tried to breath normally and lasted all of five minutes before he had to leap up to avoid Kent noticing his raging hard on. 

One evening they had been making waffles for dinner together when Harvey almost kissed him. Kent was standing with his back to the waffle iron, eyes alight with mirth as he gazed up at Harvey. Harvey inched closer and his head tilted down of his own accord, lips parting. The sound of Tara opening the front door had him jolting out of his stupor and jumping back from Kent. He couldn’t look the other man in the eye the rest of the evening. 

Harvey needed to get a handle on his wayward emotions, before he made a fool of himself. He blamed it on being overworked with Audrey out, so the day she came back he breathed a sigh of relief. 

It was the first home game in months that he could actually attend instead of work, and he fully intended to enjoy himself - even if Tara couldn’t come with him. He probably should’ve felt embarrassed about slipping into his Kent Parson Jersey before heading down to the rink, but he was too full of giddy anticipation to feel anything else. 

Harvey cheered along with the rest of the Aces fans when the team skated out onto the ice for warmups. The thrill of the crowd was electric - he’d missed this. It wasn’t the same from behind the scenes. 

Harvey couldn’t lose himself in the crowd for too long though, because before he knew it his face was up on the jumbotron. Harvey smiled. Of course Leo would seek him out in the crowd after he let slip he’d actually be attending this game. He waved gamely and twisted around in his seat to show whose jersey he was wearing. 

A moment later there were shocked gasps skittering through the crowd. He whipped back around to face the ice and saw Kent skating towards the edge of the rink with blood dripping down his face. Harvey stood, before realizing the futility of the action. What had happened? Someone met Kent at the edge of the rink with a cloth which he immediately pressed up to his nose. He lifted his gaze and sent the crowd a thumbs up. 

Luckily Kent’s nose stopped bleeding a moment later and Harvey could breathe a sigh of relief. The game was fast paced and intense. Kent was stunning on the ice, bloody nose quickly forgotten. He moved with unrivaled grace and speed, scoring three times before the game was over. 

Harvey waited outside of the press room after the game, hoping to catch Kent. A couple of players filed out and clapped Harvey on the back as they passed. The past few weeks he’d noticed more players acknowledging the rest of the rink’s staff as well. It was a stark contrast from the atmosphere prior to his friendship with Kent. Harvey smiled to himself as he watched some of the press filed out before Kent finally emerged. Kent shot Harvey a shy, sheepish smile when he waved him over. 

“Hey,” Harvey said, pulling Kent into a quick hug to stop himself from doing something infinitely worse, like stroke his fingers gently across the purple bruise blooming on his face. “Nice hatty.” 

He felt Kent bury his smile in his shoulder before clapping him on the back and pulling out of the hug. “Thanks man,” he said. “I’ve got to go shower, but maybe we can hang tomorrow?” 

Harvey nodded, unable to bite back his smile all the way home. 

Tara was already home when Harvey walked in and she ushered him over to the couch the instant he walked through the door. 

“Oh my god,” she said, shifting her laptop so Harvey could see what was on the screen. “Did you see this while you were at the game?” 

Harvey peered at the screen where a gif was looping of Kent skating forward with his head tilted back, eyes on something above him before crashing face first directly into Corey Motts’ helmet. Harvey shook his head. 

“I had my back to the rink when that happened,” he cringed as gif-Kent smacked into the helmet again and again. 

Tara turned to him. “Um why would you have your back to the rink?” 

“It was just warm ups,” Harvey said defensively. “Plus I was showing off my jersey on the jumbotron.” 

A giddy laugh escaped Tara. “You were not. Oh my god. We have to go on tumblr.” She pulled the computer more firmly into her lap and typed Kent’s name into the tumblr search bar. 

A bunch of videos and gifs popped up, the most popular of which was a zoomed out video of the other gif, where it was clear that Kent’s gaze was trained on the jumbotron when he crashed into Mottler. 

“He was watching you.” 

Even though that was obviously what was happening in the video, it was as if Harvey’s brain couldn’t compute the information. Tara kept scrolling, stopping at a shot by shot analysis of what went down. 

“Wow,” Tara said as she read the post. “This person put two and two together and realized you’re the same person who was dancing with Kent a while back.” 

“What?” Harvey said, grabbing the laptop from Tara’s hands. 

The post had slow motion gifs of the exact moment Kent noticed who was up on the jumbotron. He smiled up at the screen while Harvey was waving, and it was an instant after Harvey turned around that Kent stumbled and crashed into Mottler. After that was the photo of them dancing with a caption asserting Kent must be crushing on the mystery guy. 

“Uhh,” Harvey said, unable to form words. 

Tara took pity on him, patting his shoulder before gently prying the laptop from his hands. “Okay, enough tumblr for you for one day. Don’t worry, tumblr isn’t like the rest of the internet - I’m sure no other site has even realized you’re the same guy.” 

Tara’s words soothed him, but he couldn’t erase the the glance he’d seen of the text from the post below that from his mind. People were shipping them together. They thought Kent looked happier recently and attributed it to him. Huh. 

_/\\_

Kent called him the following afternoon and invited him over for some takeout and a movie, and Harvey was helpless to refuse. He was smiling when he knocked on Kent’s door. He’d come to look forward to their movie nights and with the Aces away all last week they hadn’t hung out in far too long. 

The door swung open and Jeff Troy was there instead of Kent. Harvey’s face fell before he plastered on his smile. Jeff ushered him in, explaining that Kent was getting the movie set up and that he hoped Harvey didn’t mind him crashing. Harvey smiled and said it was fine, since what else was he supposed to say? 

Harvey followed Swoops into the livingroom where Kent was fiddling with his dvd player because he somehow didn’t have a smart tv even though he definitely could’ve afforded one. Kent turned towards them when they entered and  _ beamed _ at Harvey. 

“Hey,” Kent said, standing and crossing the room towards them quickly before stopping short just a foot away. “I hope it’s cool I invited Swoops along.” 

“Oh yeah, of course.” Harvey smiled and hoped they couldn’t tell how forced it was. He shouldn’t be upset that it wasn’t just the two of them - Kent had no obligation to him. 

The three of them sat on the couch with Kent in the middle. Harvey was sitting ramrod straight and couldn’t get himself to relax - it felt like Jeff was watching him. Kent’s hand came down on the back of his neck and rubbed gently. 

“Dude, you okay?” he asked, voice quiet, though they were all so close together there was no point. 

Harvey nodded, relaxing into the touch. “I’m good,” he said, turning a little towards Kent and jolting slightly at how close their faces were. He cleared his throat and faced the T.V. 

Kent withdrew his hand and Harvey tried to seem unaffected. This was going to be a long night. 

Fifteen minutes or so into the movie Harvey noticed Jeff watching him from the corner of his eye and stiffened. Kent lifted his head off Harvey’s shoulder and peered at him mutely before turning back to the T.V. And when had that happened? He couldn’t remember when his arm had draped around Kent’s shoulder, or when the man tilted into him, snuggled into his side. 

Harvey took a deep breath in through his nose and out through his mouth to try to calm himself. He repeated the action several times until his pulse returned to normal. Kent was just a tactile person, Jeff had to know that - and it wasn’t as though he was trapping Kent against his side. If the man felt uncomfortable he could pull back at any time. 

Harvey returned his attention to the screen and they were watching Neighbors? He’d thought they were watching 21 Jump Street, had that movie been on the screen the whole time? Harvey needed to pull himself together. 

He shifted slightly, gently maneuvering his shoulder out from underneath Kent before standing. He mumbled something about the bathroom and fled as they paused the movie. Though there was really no use for that since he had no clue what was going on anyway. 

Harvey locked the door behind him and splashed his face with cool water. He stared at himself at the mirror.  _ Relax, fucking relax man.  _ He thought to himself, meeting his reflection’s stoney gaze. God he was going to embarrass himself if he didn’t get it under control. 

Harvey took another couple deep breaths before opening the door and walking back towards Kent’s living room. He was going to get through this evening without revealing his feelings for Kent. He had to. 

“Dude, he’s definitely hella into you.” Jeff’s voice drifted into the hallway and Harvey froze. So much for no one figuring out his crush today. 

“I don’t know,” Kent said, defending him. “You saw him leap up when he realized I was leaning on his shoulder.”  

Harvey’s feet were glued to the floor and he couldn’t get his traitorous body to do anything other than listen. 

“Kent, I’m telling you this as your best friend. He  _ likes _ you.” 

Harvey finally jolted himself out of his stupor and stumbled forward into the living room before Kent could answer and break his fucking heart. Both men were standing in front of the couch, and Jeff’s hands dropped from Kent’s shoulder’s as the man whipped around to face Harvey, face flushed a brilliant red. 

“How much of that did you hear?” Kent asked, voice high and reedy. 

Harvey ignored his question and stepped closer to the pair of them. “I am so sorry Kent.” 

Kent’s shoulders sagged and his gaze dropped from Harvey’s face. Harvey spared a glance towards Jeff who looked exceedingly uncomfortable but he plowed on nonetheless. 

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable. I know you don’t feel the same way about me as I do you and I’m totally good with being just friends,” Harvey said, tripping over his words. 

“How do you feel about me?” Kent asked, eyes wide as he took a step closer to Harvey. 

“Are you really going to make me say it?” Harvey was distantly aware of Jeff slipping out of the apartment as he fought his own urge to flee.  

Kent gazed up at Harvey, brown eyes piercing, seemingly content to wait for Harvey to answer. 

This is it, Harvey thought, squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m in love with you.” 

“ _ Oh thank god _ .” 

Harvey’s eyes flew open just in time to see Kent lunge towards him, crashing their mouths together. While Harvey’s mind was still three moves behind, his body caught up. He wrapped his arms around Kent and pulled him as close as physically possible. Kent’s lips were firm, insistent,  _ demanding _ against Harvey’s as he kissed the ever loving shit out of him. 

Kent pressed his tongue against the seam of his lips and Harvey opened for him, soft and pliant. Kent’s fingers were tangled in the short strands of Harvey’s hair, hips thrusting ever so slightly against Harvey’s. Harvey skimmed his hands down Kent’s waist to rest on the soft curve of his ass, squeezing lightly. Kent moaned into the kiss and it was enough to jolt Harvey’s brain back into action. 

He broke their kiss, watching with amazement as Kent swayed forward chasing his lips for a moment before opening his eyes and pulling back slightly, dropping down off his tiptoes. 

“Not that I’m not enjoying this, because I’m really fucking enjoying this,” Harvey said, voice rough and breathless. “But I am  _ so _ confused. I thought you were straight.” 

Kent rested his head against Harvey’s shoulder and let out a breathy laugh before shifting to face him. “Oh my god no. I’ve been flirting with you since we met. Did you seriously not notice?” 

Harvey shook his head. He’d been so sure Kent was straight that he justified anything between them as Kent being friendly. God he was so oblivious. Kent had been  _ so  _ pissed when he thought Harvey and Tara were dating, he didn’t shift away when Harvey wrapped an arm around his shoulder - he  _ snuggled in  _ to the touch, they went out to dinner at what was probably the fanciest restaurant in all of Vegas, and he’d even tripped into one of his own teammates and nearly broken his nose when he saw Harvey wearing his jersey for godsakes.

“I thought you were straight,” Harvey repeated weakly. 

“Let me be perfectly clear,” Kent said, stroking a finger down Harvey’s cheek. “I am not at all straight.” He punctuated his words with a brief press of his lips to the the scruffy line of Harvey’s jaw. “And I am  _ desperately _ in love with you.” 

Harvey kissed the words from Kent’s lips. He wrapped his arms around Kent and lifted, smiling into the kiss as Kent wrapped his legs around Harvey’s waist and moaned. 

Harvey had never been so happy to be wrong in his life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> So I may have written 15,000 words of Kent and an OMC... oops. Anyway I have everything pretty much written and just need to edit the next chapter. I should have it posted on Monday. Thanks for reading/liking/commenting!


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